Fitspiration and Thinspiration on Twitter: A Content Analysis.

Objective: Fitspiration, an inspiration phenomenon intended to promote healthy living via exercises and dietary changes has been shown to convey unhealthy messages, contributing to body dissatisfaction. The aim of the present study was to compare thinspiration and fitspiration social media content on Twitter.

Methods: A total of 301 thinspiration posts and 479 fitspiration posts with the most views from Twitter were collected over a 4-week period for a content analysis. Text, image, and video content were coded by two independent coders.

Results: Thinspiration posts had more content on thin ideals and disordered eating while fitspiration posts had more content on muscular ideals and healthy living. Content focussing on weight or fat loss, unrealistic body ideals, and body sexualisation or objectification, were present in both thinspiration and fitspiration posts.

Conclusions: These findings support existing literature that both fitspiration and thinspiration content contains unhealthy messages. The current study made novel contributions to the literature by examining food-related and video content, in addition to body-related and text and image content.